


i practiced up until hello (but when i stand in front of you, why do i just smile like a fool?)

by catgirlkomaru



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Extremely late first date, F/M, Fluff, happy twitter kai day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27308584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catgirlkomaru/pseuds/catgirlkomaru
Summary: He’d tried to gel his hair nicely three or four times by that point, and he scowled into the mirror as he tried so desperately to smooth down a loose lock of hair. He just wanted to look nice for her, the girl he loved so dearly. Spirits, the things his mirror had seen… each failed attempt with his hair had led to him practicing his greeting. If the object could talk, Kai would be mortified.
Relationships: Jinora & Kai (Avatar), Jinora/Kai (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	i practiced up until hello (but when i stand in front of you, why do i just smile like a fool?)

He’d tried to gel his hair nicely three or four times by that point, and he scowled into the mirror as he tried so desperately to smooth down a loose lock of hair. He just wanted to look nice for her, the girl he loved so dearly. Spirits, the things his mirror had seen… each failed attempt with his hair had led to him practicing his greeting. If the object could talk, Kai would be mortified.

“Hey Jin, you ready to go?” No, much too informal. It would seem like he was trying to rush her out and rush their date.  
“Hey, babe, you look nice. You ready?” Too impersonal, that felt forced, practiced… he wanted her to feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. “nice” wasn’t ever going to cut the mustard.  
“Jinny, darling-“ Ugh… stop that right there. He sounded like a 50-year-old stock trader who was barely happy in his big house and his marriage. Besides, who would dare bastardise such a beautiful name like Jinora into something as plain as “Jinny”?

Not Kai, that was for sure.

He glanced at the clock, swore under his breath, and pulled on his jacket. He was late, which was to say he was right on time. Jinora was paranoid about being late, so he’d always make sure that they were early. One last look and a smooth, cool “Hey baby, you look ravishing” to rehearse later, he rushed to Jinora’s room.

Thank you Tenzin, he grumbled internally, for making sure he was as far away as possible.

To new acolytes and to new airbenders, they were an unlikely pair. He was a former thief, a criminal and a liar, and Jinora could never have been more opposite to him than that. She was perfection in a person, beauty in a mortal form… Her bending was more graceful than he could ever hope to get close to. Her lines were perfect, her angles were perfect… her face was perfect… the smallest furrow of her brow when she had to flick her wrist in such a particular way-

She was perfect.

And of course, he knew she tried hard to be. He considered such a fact as he buttoned his blazer. She’d had more determination within her than he could ever hope for.

How had he gotten so lucky?

At the last moment he misbuttoned his blazer, then rapped his knuckles against her doorframe. He swallowed hard as the doors slid open and revealed his dream girl. It felt like some kind of grand reveal as he looked down at her, the light in her room illuminating her like some kind of spirit. Maybe it was, maybe the spirits were on her side, making her look lovelier than any worldly object.

He was no good with words, but as he gazed upon her and his throat ran dry, as his hands began to work overtime producing sweat, as his mind blanked to preserve the sight of her, he knew. He knew that she was more than he could ever dream of, beyond imagination. He’d thank the spirits another day, too focused on that soft yellow dress draped over her body, the little heels bumping her up an inch or two (maybe his back wouldn’t hurt so much when they kissed thanks to this), her hair curling up to her lips.. goodness gracious, her lips. She’d coloured them a sweet, warm peachy tone. Soft and sweet, just like her. He yearned to touch her.

His body forgot how to react, all of the rehearsing he’d done that day was thrown so far out of the window and into the cool evening breeze. He stuck out his hand for her to shake, looking down at it in shock. How was it fair, he thought to himself, that after all these years, Jinora was still this powerful. 

The girl raised a brow at his action, her head tilting as her faced morphed into an expression between confused and amused. He played it off, running a hand through his hair as a blush rose to his cheeks. He cringed at the feeling of the set gel on his hand, and the reminder he’d messed up his hard work. Jinora giggled, like the ringing of a bell. It bought him back home, and he smiled to her.

“Are you ready, Kai?” She kept an amused smile on her face as she reached out to fix his buttons. He swallowed hard as he watched her fingers so delicately piece him together as he was meant to be.

Never mind the irony of it being that her being so close made his knees weak.

“Yeah. Yeah!” He gave her a cheeky grin. “Ready when you are, uh… beautiful.” He kicked himself. That wasn’t what he wanted to say at all. How could he still be losing his mind? He bought a hand up to her cheek as she straightened out his coat, tilting her head to look at him.  
And she did. She looked up to him with those big brown eyes that seemed impossible to pull himself away from. Every blink, those long lashes, the soft raise of her eyebrows… she was so expressive with them. He had no idea if she took care of them or they were just made perfect like the rest of her. He pecked her lips, careful not to mess up her makeup, and she smiled at him. They joined their hands, and wandered in a comfortable silence to the dock.

Jinora had grown to enjoy peace and quiet, she’d missed her youth when the island wasn’t full of airbenders, only acolytes. When she didn’t have blue arrows all over her body, and she was still the student. She was busy, and whilst happy to help she still craved the quiet.

Kai supposed growing up with Ikki and Meelo would do that to someone.

He certainly didn’t mind walking in silence, hand in hand. He didn’t mind the silence full stop, because it wasn’t silence. It was her head in his lap, or his in hers, whilst she read a book and he just… observed. He was good at that. So good, in fact, that he had a sketchbook full of her. Snapshots of their quiet time, preserved for his eyes only. Beyond that, stolen moments, fished from his memory to preserve in a locked box, never to be seen by anyone again. 

Tenzin would renounce his vows of non-violence if he found that lock box.

He had to look, he had to observe. He’d needed to in order to survive, once. Yet, it felt like that again. Any second spent looking away from her was wasted. There was no better sight to see than Master Jinora. No bark of any tree could sparkle the way her brown hair in the moonlight, or the sun, or under a cloudy sky. No brown gemstone (if there was such a thing, and if there was then he certainly didn’t know about it) could sparkle more than her eyes when she regaled a tale from the newest book she was reading to him, or when she laughed at something he’d said. The fluttering of his heart couldn’t overpower the confidence she gave him. 

If the spirits had graced him with Jinora, he really could do anything.

“Hey, Jinora?” He nudged her as he sat beside her on the ferry into the city. “Are there brown gemstones?”  
She tilted her head and his stomach flipped. She was so cute when she did that to think, puckering her lips softly as she considered. “Yeah, I think so. Smoky quartz is pretty brown, though some of them look more like a black tone to me... Oh, and I have a necklace from one of Aunt Kya’s travels that’s made of dravite. Its beautiful… I’m sure you’ve seen it on my dresser.”  
“I meant sparkly ones. Like diamonds.” He smiled, though, because she knew the answers. Of course she knew the answers.  
“Oh! I mean, yeah of course. You can get brown variations of most of them I think, its just the impurities getting trapped as they form. The largest cut and faceted diamond in the world is a brown diamond.” She said this as if it was exciting. “I think it belongs to the Fire nation- “

Anyone else would have regretted asking, but not Kai. He listened intently, as if each word was an instruction to keep him alive. He didn’t know how big 540 carats was, but he’d pretend to. He’d pretend to remember all about the fire sages and their role when she mentioned them in the tale.  
He sometimes wished she’d speak forever.

“Most brown diamonds come from a- I’m… going on, aren’t I?” Jinora blushed, looking to her lap. She was constantly aware that he wasn’t like her, little facts like this didn’t entertain him like it did her.  
“Most brown diamonds come from a what?” He put an arm around her, poking her side. “Come on, you can’t just cut me off there!”  
“…Well, they all tend to come from a specific set of mines in the earth kingdom, so technically it’s a pillaged item.”  
“Oh? So, would I get in trouble for stealing it back?” He joked, pulling her close.  
“Hm, most likely, since it’s part of the crown jewels… If you want to try, we could hop along with Kya and visit Fire Lord Izumi.” She gave a cheeky smile. “Adults like me, so I’m sure I could distract her.”  
He let out a light laugh as he helped her stand as they docked. “Yeah? Like a real heist?”  
“Mhm! Weapons and all, since... our bodies are the weapon.” Jinora kept smiling, and accepted his hand to get off the ferry.

“Like uh… that book you lent me.” He mentioned as they walked along the bay and into town. He was itching to see her light up again. He wanted to ignite those eyes again.  
“Oh! Yes!” And sure enough, she did. “Did you finish it? It took me two days… was a week long enough for you?”  
He remembered those two days. She’d been so much more expressive as she read, and from her lap he must have read the blurb a thousand times. He had it memorised. Well, he had the look of the book in her hands memorised, the way her forehead poked over the top, how her eyebrows crept closer and closer to the arrow in the centre of her forehead at times of tension. He’d committed the scene to memory. He’d drawn it several times to make sure he never forgot.  
“Yeah, uh…” No. Fuck. Think, Kai, what was the title? They’d waited years to have a real date like this, and Kai owed Lin his life to talking Master Tenzin into letting him take his daughter into the city for a date, he couldn’t screw it up over a book he hadn’t so much as picked up since Jinora gave it to him.  
He never claimed to be perfect.  
“Sold Souls, right? The criminal lovers that terrorised the world with their crafty thefts until they were tragically killed in a getaway gone wrong.” Nailed it.

Jinora’s smile softened. He had a smug little look on his face, and she wanted to kiss it away. That wasn’t the title of the book, she knew he was lying.  
She didn’t care though. They’d been waiting so long for this opportunity that just hearing him try and lie to her face was amusing and endearing. “Yeah? Which was your favourite part?” She did her best to fight the giggle building up when she watched his face flick into an expression of pure panic. It had taken years for them to be able to go on a date like this, and Jinora owed Lin her life for convincing her dad to let it happen, so she wasn’t about to let a dispute over a book that she knew he hadn’t so much as glanced at since it was handed to him get in the way of it.

She admired his hand as it rubbed the back of his head whilst he tried to think of a lie. He’d grown so strong, and while her hands were small and dainty, his were large, solid and strong. His panic was palpable.

She wasn’t a cruel woman by any means, so she had elected to help him along. “I actually think I liked the diamond heist that they did the best… It was their best work, because she was in charge of it.”  
“No, yeah, for sure, babe. She had the whole thing planned from start to finish, and pulled it off, flawless.” Kai tried to agree. Jinora bit back a laugh, wondering if he knew that his chin would tense when he lied to her. She’d spent so long looking at him that it was a wonder she could get any reading done at all! How could she focus on words and reading when the most wonderful part of her life so far was gazing at her with a dreamy expression that he swore he didn’t wear when she bought it up? How could she not stare, when he was staring at her too? How could she not stare, when he was focused so hard on his sketchbook? How could she not stare, when he scrunched up his nose when a line didn’t quite go how he intended it to?

How could she not stare at the most freeing thing that her element had given her?

Even if he hadn’t read that book, and was doing the worst job of lying to her, he was trying to impress her. After all these years, he still felt the need to impress her.  
She’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t impressed by every little thing he did. He was a quick learner, and… well, he was up for his tattoos within the year, by her father’s estimates. He’d come so far from that lying little boy that they’d met eight years before… 

And boy, was she glad.

His face never left her mind, the strong shape of his jaw had been memorised by her fingertips, by her lips. The sound of his laugh had been etched into her memory, and the way he’d smile while she spoke about something she found incredible but she knew he didn’t care so much about what she was saying was burnt into her retinas. He was cute. He was more than cute. He was strong, and broad and made her feel safe late at night, when they were hiding in some obscure corner of Air Temple Island to hide from the White Lotus guards who’d inevitably snitch to her father.

More than that, though, he was thrilling. 

She never thought she’d really be a rebellious teenager. She was worried about consequences, more so than Meelo or Ikki. Years ago, when her father had begged them not to turn out like Korra and she’d looked up from her book and said that she made no promises, she had thought she’d have been like the girls in her books, running around on adventures and breaking hearts. She’d presumed that she’d have been able to go to parties and have fun with her youth, but the fear of repercussions had begun to bear down on her quickly.

Until Kai came into her life.

She’d have never had done half of the things she’d done if not for him. She’d always had too much sense about her, but he kicked that to the side, stopped her worrying, and helped her let off that build-up of steam.

(That was another one of his favourite things about her too, that she’d only blow off steam with him around to open the valve)

With her hand tightly in his, her inhibitions would melt into nothing. Nothing mattered but him, his smile and his awful idea that was bound to get them into an exhilarating amount of trouble.

“Oh, wait, remember how we were talking about bison racing on Sunday?” Kai looked down to her. “I… have some bad news.”  
She tilted her head, looking up at him with soft eyes and a sweet pout. His heart fluttered at the sight. How could he let her down like this, when she looked this radiant? How could he tell the kindest eyes in the world no? 

How could he tell the woman he was most in love with, the woman he was so utterly enamoured (a word he knew thanks to her) with, the woman he’d die eight times over for, no? He bit his lower lip, looking down at her, unable to think of what to say. Or, in fact, much of anything at all. She always caught him off guard somehow, pushed every clever and witty thing out of his head. He was constantly compelled to let her know how incredible she was, as he had that day at the temple.

(Being the catalyst to her standing up to her father gave him a bit of a thrill, but he’d never admit that aloud)

“I love you.” He whispered, against his own will. His heart had taken over his brain. She’d took him by surprise again, and his heart plummeted. No, he couldn’t have just said that. He had a plan, he’d planned-  
“You liar.” She laughed, face breaking into a grin. “That’s great news. I love you too.” Jinora pulled him a little closer to peck his lips, fighting the rising blush he could see creeping up her neck. Kai breathed a sigh of relief. She loved him, too.

It was at that point he realised. The spirits hadn’t given him Jinora, it had gifted him to her.

He couldn’t have been happier.


End file.
